These days, forum marketing has become an integral part of each and every successful internet marketing campaign. It allows you, the webmaster, easy and free access to people who may possibly be interested in the product or service you are offering. Little to no investment is required to join these remarkable programs. But as with all small business practices on the Internet, it has some definite pros and cons.
The first and probably the best thing about forum marketing is the highly targeted nature of it. When you speak on a certain forum, which is primarily concerned with the program or product you are selling, you have the attention of the people who are likely to buy your product. This will save you time and effort wasted on other ad campaigns you may have tried in the past. Also another great advantage of the targeting factor is that for each one who posted a comment there can be up to 10 loiterers, or silent observers, at any one time. These silent observers will also often buy your product or service.
Forum marketing is not only a great advertising program that will attract customers, but also a great place to test marketing and product development. All you need to do to get started is be aware of product complaints and reviews that can be found on forums. Once you have found the target product, you can test it in the market by asking forum participants for their opinions on the product or even giving some prototypes for people to test and evaluate.
The final advantage of forum marketing is that there is very little cash or time involved. Forums are available at no additional cost to you, so you don’t have to spend a lot of money on marketing. Also, although you will need to spend some time posting on the forums, this marketing campaign can be done at your own pace. So this is definitely not a full-time job and requires less than half an hour of your time each week. It can take several months to get the product up and running, but it’s worth it when you consider the initial investment you contributed.
There are very few downsides to forum marketing, but they are still just as important as the upsides. The first and probably the most notable drawback is that this is not a program you want to assign to an outside person or company. You have to take your time personally and engage with the posters before they even consider buying your product. Because of this, this is not a practice for someone who wants to generate a lot of traffic and sales right away.
The second disadvantage is that you, as the product owner, will need good interpersonal skills as well as the ability to appear trustworthy in the world of the Internet. If you don’t have any of these skills, you can practice on other forums before even trying to promote your product.
To determine if forum marketing is for you, you’ll need to weigh the pros and cons that come with it. More importantly, if you don’t have the time or interpersonal skills that forum marketing entails, you may want to consider finding other ways to promote your product. If you think you possess these skills, then forum marketing is an ultimate solution for your product promotion.
